Every Democrat running for governor of California just agreed — on stage, into microphones, in front of cameras — that requiring commercial truck drivers to speak English is racist. Not “potentially problematic.” Not “worth discussing.” Racist. As in, understanding the words on a stop sign is now white supremacy.
Pop quiz: What weighs 80,000 pounds, barrels down the freeway at 70 miles per hour, and doesn’t need its driver to understand “WRONG WAY — DO NOT ENTER”? If you answered “a California Democrat policy proposal,” congratulations. You’re paying attention.
The moment came during a gubernatorial forum when candidates were asked a perfectly reasonable question: “Should language proficiency for truck drivers be strictly enforced?” In any functioning society, the answer is obviously yes. But this is California, where functioning societies go to die.
Tom Steyer — the billionaire climate activist who apparently also has opinions about trucking — fired back with “Racial profiling is illegal.” That was his answer. Not “safety matters” or “maybe drivers should understand road signs.” Nope. Asking a truck driver if he can read English is racial profiling now.
Xavier Becerra — fresh off his catastrophic run as Biden’s HHS Secretary where he helped oversee the border crisis — promised he would “protect truckers that do not speak English” as governor. Protect them from what, exactly? From the horrifying oppression of knowing what “YIELD” means?
And then Katie Porter jumped in to lecture everyone about racism for even suggesting that language proficiency matters when you’re operating a vehicle the size of a small building. Classic Porter — she brought the whiteboard energy but forgot to bring common sense.
Now, here’s the part nobody on that stage wanted to mention. California already issued at least 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Seventeen thousand. The state was eventually forced to revoke those licenses because they were about to lose federal transportation funding. So they’ve already been down this road — pun absolutely intended — and it ended exactly how you’d expect.
But sure, let’s make the argument that reading comprehension is bigotry when the reading material is “HAZMAT” and “FLAMMABLE” and “BRIDGE CLEARANCE 12 FEET.”
Think about what these people are actually saying. They want someone who cannot read “EMERGENCY STOP” in English to haul a tanker full of gasoline through downtown Los Angeles. They want a driver who can’t understand “DETOUR — ROAD CLOSED” navigating an 18-wheeler through a school zone. And if you think that’s a safety issue, well, you’re the bigot.
This is the logical endpoint of the woke mind virus. Everything is racist. Everything. Job qualifications? Racist. Safety standards? Racist. The ability to communicate with highway patrol during an emergency? Believe it or not — racist.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires that commercial drivers be able to read and speak English well enough to communicate with the public and understand highway signs and signals. That’s a *federal* regulation. It exists because when a truck driver can’t read “BRIDGE OUT AHEAD,” people die. This isn’t theoretical — it’s basic.
But California Democrats don’t live in the real world. They live in a world where feelings outweigh physics, where virtue signaling is more important than vehicle safety, and where the scariest thing on the highway isn’t an 80,000-pound truck driven by someone who can’t read exit signs — it’s the possibility that someone, somewhere, might feel excluded.
Every one of these candidates wants to run the fifth-largest economy on Earth. And every one of them just told you that road safety is less important than not hurting anyone’s feelings. These are the people who want to be in charge of California’s infrastructure, emergency response, and transportation policy.
Remember this the next time you’re driving on a California freeway and a semi drifts into your lane. The driver might not have understood the sign that said “STAY IN YOUR LANE” — but at least nobody called him a mean word. And really, isn’t that what matters?
Sleep tight, California. Your future governor thinks brake lights are probably racist too.
